Illustrator’s Layers

A thorough understanding of Illustrator’s capabilities, including the sublayers, forms the basis upon which you can build your mastery of layers. Even with all the powerful new capabilities, the most important aspects of layers remain your ability to create without destroying artwork below and to organize and rearrange the elements of your artwork. Figure 10.1 shows how layers interact in the most basic fashion. At the top, the three layers are separated so that the content is visible. To the lower-left, they overlap. To the lower-right, they are aligned.

Figure 10.1. Although each of the three layers is independent and has its own artwork, when viewed together, artwork on an upper layer blocks the artwork below.